Tag: Mike Resnick

The Widowmaker (Widowmaker #1) ★★★★☆

~ Bookstooge ~ 39 Comments

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Widowmaker
Series: Widowmaker #1
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 198
Words: 67K

From Bookstooge.blog


Jefferson Nighthawk, also known as the Widowmaker, is in deepfreeze for an incurable disease. Unfortunately, that is expensive and even the Widowmaker runs out of money now and then. So to procure more money to keep him on ice until a cure is found, a clone is made and sent on an assignment. Which he fulfills and then dies because he makes bad choices about a woman.

Every time I re-read a book, it feels like I am marching out into an old minefield. With a blindfold on while carrying a 25lb cane that I smash into the ground at every step. That feeling of “will THIS step be the one where I explode and my guts go flying for 200 yards in every direction” is not very pleasant. On the flip side, if I do make it safely to the other side, the palpable relief coupled with the enjoyment of a familiar trek pretty much trebles the enjoyment.

In some ways this was a very frustrating read. Jeff Nighthawk, the young clone, is just so young that you know what is going to happen because he wants what he wants despite everyone telling him otherwise. If he’d been a normal person, he would have had a broken heart and learned from his past. Being a galaxy famous bounty hunter, well, all it takes is one mistake to kill him.

I really liked the idea of cloning the Widowmaker and using him. It makes for some interesting dynamics and philosophical rabbit trails but without getting all deep and serious and depressing. It was also fun to be back in Resnick’s Far Future History. Santiago took place during the Democracy (I think) and this takes place much later in what is called the Oligarchy. But the idea that there is always a frontier, a place to go if you’re a free individual is one that Resnick keeps alive in his stories.

The Idea of the Widowmaker is also one that resonates with me. Not necessarily the stone cold killer, but the idea of being the apex of your profession. I like reading about individuals who have striven to be the best and ARE the best. None of this schmopey dopey “ohhh, we’re all just the same” crap. No, we damned well are NOT the same and if you think otherwise, then you are insane and contributing to the general insanity of the world. I cannot be an astronaut no matter how much I might want to be. Nor can I be a professional basketball player. But I can work with only 1 person for 9hrs a day and not need communal group hugs or “attaboys” every other minute and I don’t need to discuss Movie/TV Show X over the water cooler. And you’d be surprised how many people can’t take the solitude. They think they can, but they can’t. So all that rant aside, I like reading about people who excel at what they do. It is inspiring.

There are 3 more Widowmaker books in this series and since I enjoyed this re-read as much as I did, I am fully looking forward to the rest of the series.

★★★★☆

The Return of Santiago (Santiago #2) ★★★✬☆

~ Bookstooge ~ 25 Comments

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Return of Santiago
Series: Santiago #2
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 278
Words: 122K

So, a hundred or two years after the first Santiago book, some small time thief discovers the original manuscript from Black Orpheus and decides that he wants to become his successor, a Dante. So he realizes that he needs a Santiago to center the continuing poem around sets out to find one. With the help of some colorful characters he attempts to recruit various bigger than life characters to become Santiago only to realize that each one is pretty flawed each time. Eventually, with the help of his co-horts hitting him over the head with it, he realizes HE is the new Santiago.

Santiago was published in 1986 and was a completely standalone novel. Return was published in ‘03 and did a bit of fancy dancy stuff to make it possible to need a “return of Santiago”. While I still enjoyed this, it simply wasn’t in the same league as the first book and really felt like Resnick was trying to recapture the magic (and failing). Thankfully, he doesn’t recycle the same set of characters as was presented in the first book, so that was good. But none of them quite lived up the engaging’ness of the cast of characters we met in the first book.

If you liked Santiago, then I would recommend Return if you really need to be a completionist. However, I would strongly caution you to think twice, as this just isn’t as good. Not bad, but not as good.

★★★✬☆

Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future (Santiago #1) ★★★★★

~ Bookstooge ~ 23 Comments

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future
Series: Santiago #1
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 328
Words: 116K

Another re-read of an old favorite and thankfully, this time it stood the test. Like other “favorites” I had read this in highschool and Bibleschool multiple times and loved it. Read it again in ‘12 and loved it then too. But after my time in November of re-reading a couple of old favorites and finding them wanting, I went into this very hesitantly.

And wonder of wonders, it was grand and big and all space shoot’y and awesome and everything that I wanted in a Myth of the Far Future! It’s a simple story with simple characters and a simple universe. If you want massive backstories explaining every single detail, forget it. If you want characters with bio’s running from their childhood to the present, forget it. Use your own flipping imagination for once and Resnick will give you the ride of a lifetime here. I can see myself moving beyond this like I have the other books, but I am reveling in the fact that right now, it is still the same fantastic book as ever.

The other thing I’m going to talk about here are the various covers.

This is the cover of the mass market paperback that I read back in the 90’s. That orangey yellow is what made it stand out on the revolving book rack in the library. The guy with the funny haircut holding out the paper with the spaceship in the background promised mystery and adventure and cool stuff and boy howdy, I got all of that.

When Resnick turned his books into ebooks, I believe he had to use new covers because he didn’t own the rights to the originals. So he went with this stock photo (and he used it for the sequel ebook too) and overall, it works well. We’re dealing with Space and the farthest reaches of where mankind can go, so something haunting like this feeds into that idea.

This is the ebook cover this time around. Resnick is now dead, so I don’t know if he chose this before his passing or it ended up the decision of his estate. Either way, it’s rather blah and very homecomputer graphics looking. Why you would choose to read this book based on that cover is beyond me.

And that should wrap things up. Cheers!

★★★★★

Castle in Cassiopeia (Dead Enders #3) ★★☆☆½

~ Bookstooge ~ 9 Comments

castleincassiopeia (Custom)This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Castle in Cassiopeia
Series: Dead Enders #3
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 289
Format: Digital Edition

 

Synopsis:

The Michtag clone from the first book has decided that he likes being the ruler and using the military knowledge gained from his growing time, begins to crush the Democracy. So the Democracy sends in Nathan Pretorias and the Dead Enders.

Having lost 2 members and gained 1 in the previous book, Nathan still needs one more to complete his team. With the help of the knowledgable Madam, he gets an outlaw with the body of a bear and the mind of a steel trap.

The Dead Enders track down Michtag, kill him and escape. Glory and laughs for everyone.

 

My Thoughts:

I was a chapter in before I realized I had somehow skipped book 2. By that point I simply didn’t care. Honestly, besides finding out that Character X and Y were dead and the introduction of two other characters, it made zero impact on this book.

Unfortunately, I was correct in my assessment that this trilogy would be a dud for me. The characters make their predictable one liners, act spot on just like the script says and the plot follows. I’m sorry, but you don’t infiltrate the fortress that holds the galaxy’s most notorious war leader and just have everything fall into line.

Bloody A, there was more security and potential problems for the release of the horrible movie Breaking Dawn than Michtag had in his entire fortress. It just felt like a walk in the park and it really, really, really shouldn’t have.

I think I am done with exploring Resnick. If I ever feel the need to read anything of his again, I’ll just stick to the Santiago and Widowmaker books. I know I liked those at least.

★★☆☆½

 

bookstooge (Custom)

 

 

The Fortress in Orion (Dead Enders #1) ★★★☆☆

~ Bookstooge ~ 14 Comments

fortressinoriion (Custom)This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Fortress in Orion
Series: Dead Enders #1
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 306
Format: Digital Edition

 

Synopsis:

Nathan Pretorias, a secret agent for the Democracy, has returned from yet another impossible mission. Well, parts of him returned. Now he has been tagged to carry out a truly impossible mission:

replace the war chief Michtag, the universal dictator of the aliens fighting humanity with a clone raised by humans and trained

Nathan assembles his own team of specialists, all misfits in one way or another. They make their way to the super secret fortress on the super secret planet deep in the Coalition. They kidnap and replace General Michtag and successfully make their way back to the Democracy.

Where Nathan’s superior presents yet another impossible mission, a mission only the Dead Enders can take on.

 

My Thoughts:

While I absolutely loved Santiago and the Widowmaker series, this reminded much more of the Starship series. Space Opera at its most mediocre. There simply wasn’t any tension. While Resnick excels at telling a myth style story set in the future, he’s not so good at just telling a character story.

For an impossible fortress and impossible mission, everything went off without a hitch. No matter how good your team is, something is going to go wrong and everything is going to be flubbed up. That just didn’t happen here and so like I said, there was zero tension. If there had been a lot of action or something else, even that could be gotten past, but there really wasn’t much else.

Resnick seems to be very hit or miss for me and I have a feeling this Dead Enders trilogy is going to be a miss. I hope I am proved wrong, but I’m very much getting the same vibe from this book that I got from the middle Starship book. That does not bode well. I’m still giving this 3stars for the newness of the story but if the second book is just as blasé, I’ll be dropping the rating accordingly.

★★★☆☆

 

bookstooge (Custom)

 

 

Stalking the Zombie (John Justin Mallory #3)

~ Bookstooge ~ 4 Comments

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This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Booklikes & Librarything by  Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

 

 

Title: Stalking the Zombie
Series: John Justin Mallory #3
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 222
Format: Kindle digital scan

 

Synopsis:

A collection of short stories about John Justin Mallory, a private investigator who has been transported to an other worldly version of Manhattan.

Solving mysteries with an old fat lady who hunted monstrous creatures in the deepest jungles and taking care of a spoiled cat girl, Mallory also has to put up with the East Coasts most powerful demon. Who never tells a lie. Odd that.

 

My Thoughts:

This was ok. While it is the 3rd book in the series [something I didn’t realize when I started reading this], being a collection of short stories it fills in everything you need to know to feel right at home.

Certain aspects were extremely repetitive, which once again, is because of it being short stories that were written at widely varying times and for widely varying publications. I found I could skip about 3 paragraphs per story once I’d read the first story.

Mallory was supposed to be a hard bitten PI but he came across a gambling addict who relied too much on his own perceived smarts instead of working hard. One short story was ok but more than that and it just wasn’t fun any more. Too bad, because Resnick has a pretty good track record with me.

star25full-custom

A Gathering of Widowmakers (Widowmaker #4)

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7531b2621ef3bc611a048024f632e474 This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

 

Synopsis:

Young Jeff, the Widowmaker cloned to take the Original’s place, so he can live in peace, ends up fighting with the second clone, who has taken on the identity of Jason Newman.

The Widowmaker realizes he hasn’t taught young Jeff all he really needs to know to BE the Widowmaker and sets about to do just that.

But of course, there is a new outlaw that forces all 3 of the Widowmakers to team up and in the process young Jeff grows up and takes his rightful place as the True Widowmaker.

 

My Thoughts:

This was a good ending to the Widowmaker series. It was classic Resnick with some good banter between the Widowmakers as well as Kinoshita (?).

In many ways this whole series could be thought of as shallow and trite and just some throw away space opera. And really, you wouldn’t be wrong. But Resnick’s stories always revolve around ideas that are bigger than life and instead of trying to make those ideas fit into our world, he simply turns those ideas into people and situations that are bigger than life. I find this approach VERY appealing as well as good story telling.

The Widowmaker is Justice personified. He is quick, deadly, emotionless and never lets his quarry get away. And through this tetralogy we get to see all sorts of sides to that. Old, bitter experienced Jefferson Nighthawk. Young, inexperienced but super deadly [and ironically, dead] Jefferson. Middle aged, experienced Jason Newman who is sick of it all. Young, experienced and yet teachable Jeff.

So many aspects of Justice. Cold and Calculating. Righteous Indignation. Devil may care.

It is just a lot of fun to read and it resonates with me. These Widowmaker books, along with his Santiago duology, are the best of Resnick in my opinion. Highly recommended.

 

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Author: Mike Resnick

A Gathering of Widowmakers

Widowmaker #4

The Widowmaker Unleashed (Widowmaker #3)

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7ac315519490e7956a4cd552cbe2c66f This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

 

Synopsis

Jefferson Nighthawk, the original Widowmaker, has been cured of his disease and released back into the land of the living. He just wants to settle down and live the rest of his days out quietly with a good woman.

However, the jobs his 2 previous clones pulled have made him a whole boatload of new enemies, ones he doesn’t know at all. So it looks like the Widowmaker has a choice, come out of retirement or die!

 

My Thoughts

While I enjoyed this book, it seemed rather short compared to the others. However, it is as long page-wise as the previous two.

Jefferson gets out, expects to retire, but keeps sticking his nose into situations that draw him back into the bounty hunter lifestyle. He keeps “saying” he wants out, but his actions say otherwise.

Eventually he creates another clone to the Widowmaker and fakes his own death so he can live in peace.

This would be much better as an ending to the overall story instead of as a stand alone story. I think if you read all 3 of the Widowmaker books in a row, that this would have been a better tale, as it would have been directly resting on the previous stories.  As a story by itself, however, I found Jefferson Nighthawk to be a cantankerous, selfish, deliberately blind and obtuse old man. His abilities didn’t outweigh his un-likable’ness.

When I read the 2 book, I found out there was a 4th book. I hope to hunt it down and read it in the next couple of months, because overall I have really enjoyed the Widowmaker books and think they rate right up there with the Santiago Duology.

 

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Author: Mike Resnick

The Widowmaker Unleashed

Widowmaker #3

The Widowmaker Reborn (Widowmaker #2)

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This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

Synopsis

Jefferson Nighthawk, aka the Widowmaker, is cloned again to rescue a young lady from a terrorist who is holding her hostage for ransom. This time, he’s been cloned as a 38 year old with all his original memories.

 

My Thoughts

Where Jeff, the first clone, was a 23 year old horndog who thought with his genitals, this clone has 62 years of memories and an additional 15 years of age to combat that. Jefferson makes his plans from the get-go, counting on that he’ll be betrayed by either the client, his lawyers or *somebody*. And his goal is to get enough money to live on, cure the original AND himself and to disappear so he doesn’t spend his life running.

This Widowmaker was an experienced, hardened veteran getting a job done. He does what he needs to with minimal fuss, little show and a lot of brains.

There are still all of the obligatory cliched characters that populate Resnick’s universe, but it wouldn’t be his universe without them. A corrupt politician, a beautiful girl, a desperado with a twist, some sort of alien or 2. And guns and stuff. Beautiful Kablooies!

I thoroughly enjoyed this. If the final book in this trilogy holds up, I’ll have to seriously consider buying this trilogy in hardcover.

 

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Author: Mike Resnick

The Widowmaker Reborn

Widowmaker #2

Widowmaker (Widowmaker #1)

~ Bookstooge ~ 1 Comment

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This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer

 

Synopsis

Jefferson Nighthawk, also known as the Widowmaker, is in deepfreeze for an incurable disease. Unfortunately, that is expensive and even the Widowmaker runs out of money now and then. So to procure more money to keep him on ice until a cure is found, a clone is made and sent on an assignment.

 

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed Resnick’s Santiago duology and his Starship series was ok as well. Thankfully, I enjoyed this just as much.

Resnick’s Outer Rim is a wonderful place to read about. Characters bigger than fiction, huger than real life. Battles and circumstances so outrageous, so unbelievable that you are sucked in. And you love it, all of it.

This is about a clone, Jeff Nighthawk, who has all the skills of Widowmaker, but not his experience of life, and Jeff resents Widowmaker. So while on assignment, he plans to kill his employer, who has already doublecrossed him and also Widowmaker, so that he, Jeff, will BE the Widowmaker.

Sadly, Jeff falls in love. With a lowclass gold-digger. And you know things never work out well when one of those are involved. So you know the ending from at least halfway through the book, if not sooner.

Simplistic, stylized, pulpy. But oh so fun. I look forward to the rest of this trilogy.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars

Author: Mike Resnick

Widowmaker

Widowmaker #1